Kensington exits non-conforming sector

The specialist lender, which is also revamping its prime proposition, is removing the adverse range ‘until market conditions improve’. It claimed that there was ‘no current appetite from investors for adverse credit portfolios’ and that the move was for the short term only.

Kensington confirmed the withdrawal of the K1995 special and buy-to-let self-cert product for first-time investors, as well as the high loan-to-value (LTV) bands across the range. There will also be new prices on self-cert products and fixed rates available from 6.55 per cent and trackers from 6.65 per cent.

The company claimed that the temporary withdrawal and revamp would enable it to respond to investor demand until the market for higher risk products returned.

Alison Hutchinson, chief executive of Kensington, said: “Tough times call for tough decisions and we have always communicated our decisions openly with brokers.

“Demand from investors for adverse credit or high LTV portfolios shows no sign of returning in the next few months, so we have taken the decision to put our adverse range on ice and revamp our prime range until the investor market returns.”

Hugh Nichols, partner at Badbury Berkeley Financial Services, said: “Bearing in mind so many people have adverse credit these days, I can see a distorted market. The result could be that existing borrowers with non-conforming deals have to pay the lenders’ high standard rate after any ‘offer’ period because they can’t remortgage.”

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